Sick Gazans die in 'avoidable tragedies'

Israel has turned away more sick Palestinians from Gaza seeking treatment since Hamas seized control of the enclave and several have died each month unnecessarily, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.

This is a no-brainer - Hamas are trying to destroy Israel

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Israel denied entry permits to 18,5% of patients seeking to leave the Gaza Strip in 2007 versus 10% in 2006.

But allowed 81.5% in for treatment - remember these people want to destroy Israel.

In December 2007, 36% were denied permits compared with 8,5% in December 2006.

The WHO said the number of applicants and the percentage of those turned away surged after Hamas Islamists seized control of Gaza in June, the crossing to Egypt was closed and Israel tightened restrictions on the enclave.

Israel could not provide figures for how many sick Gazans were granted travel permits last year. A senior defence official denied the system caused unnecessary death, but said Israel was wary of would-be suicide bombers using illness as a cover.

Sound security measures by any standard.

Israel says its blockade on the enclave is a response to cross-border rocket fire by militants while international organisations have condemned it as collective punishment.

Well, they are harbouring the militants who are firing the rockets!

"Even under fire and under threat we still coordinate the health needs of Gaza's population," said Colonel Nir Press, head of Israel's Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza.

So, why are the idiots from WHO spending their time critisizing Israel instead of helping the hapless Palastinians?

Shortages of medicine, equipment and trained medics, which local officials blame on Israeli restrictions, mean advanced health care is virtually non-existent in the Gaza Strip.

They are worse than children!

Thousands of Gazans have been treated over the years in the Jewish state.

Those horrible Israelis. I wonder how much of a financial contribution either Hamas or the WHO have made.

The WHO said 32 Gazans died between October 1 and March 2 while waiting for travel permits.

Maybe they should speak out against the militants and their sworn aim to destroy Israel.

It could not provide comparative figures and said it was hard to measure whether faster treatment would have saved them, characterising many of the deaths as unnecessary.

"All these tragedies could have been easily avoided," WHO's head of office for the West Bank and Gaza, Ambrogio Manenti, told a news conference. Palestinian medical officials in Gaza say more than 100 Gaza patients have died since June after being denied permits.

Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 but effectively still controls its borders. As does any sovereign nation. Palestinians say that means Israel must observe Geneva Convention obligations as an occupying power to provide services for the territory.

But they are NOT occupying it!

Egypt has allowed some Gazans in for treatment, but has agreed with Israel to keep its border largely closed. - Reuters - What can you expect!

The Islamic Republic of Hamastan

Scores of Palestinians were killed this week in Gaza in factional fighting between loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and those of Prime Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. As if on cue, it took about 24 hours before pundits the world over blamed the violence on Israel and President Bush.

This is the Israel that withdrew from Gaza after a unilateral decision and not demanding anything in return and the Bush who several years ago was calling on Palestinians to "elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror."

However last year they elected Hamas to govern them. This was was not unexpected and .. it is a consequence of the cult of violence that has typified the Palestinian movement for much of its history and which has been tolerated and often celebrated by the international community.

So now Hamas, as puppets of Iran, will have free reign to lob missiles into Israel as they wish. And pressure will surely mount on Israel and the U.S. to accept Hamas's ascendancy and begin negotiations with its leaders.

Eye witnesses have said that Hamas has taken hold of the office of Preventive Security Services which has traditionally been a Fatah stronghold and "They are executing them one by one."

Is it wise to negotiate with a group that kills its fellow Palestinians almost as freely as it does Israelis? And what would there be to negotiate about?

This would simply give Hamas time and money to consolidate its rule and rebuild an arsenal for future terror assaults.

The deeper lesson here is that a society that has spent the last decade celebrating suicide bombing would inevitably become a victim of its own nihilistic impulses. This is not the result of Mr. Bush's call for democratic responsibility; it is the bitter fruit of the decades of dictatorship and terrorism as statecraft that Yasser Arafat instilled among Palestinians.

Read the whole opinion in the Wall Street Journal online at
http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110010219